Preparation of SnS Thin Films by MOCVD Method Using Single Source Precursor, Bis(3-mercapto-1-propanethiolato) Sn(II)

Abstract

SnS thin films were deposited on glasses through metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) method at relatively mild conditions, using bis(3-mercapto-1-propanethiolato) tin(II) precursor without toxic H 2 S gas. The MOCVD process was carried out in the temperature range of 300-400 °C and the average grain size in fabricated SnS films was about 500 nm. The optical band gap of the SnS film was about 1.3 eV which is in optimal range for harvesting solar radiation energy. The precursor and SnS films were characterized through infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, DIP-EI mass spectroscopy, elemental analyses, thermal analysis, X-ray diffraction, and field emission scanning electron microscopic analyses.

Suitability of SnS thin films for photovoltaic application due to the existence of persistent photocurrent

“…The SEM micrographs show two different morphologies, where thinner films showed spherical grains and thicker films exhibited 'needle' shaped morphology ( fig 3). The needle shaped morphology [27]- [30] is typical when the 'c' or long axis is parallel to the substrate, thus confirming our assertion made while interpreting our X-Ray diffraction results.…”

Synthesis, Characterization and Photocatalytic Performance of SnS Nanofibers and SnSe Nanofibers Derived from the Electrospinning-made SnO2 Nanofibers

“…Among these materials, SnS and SnSe are increasingly important owing to their special semiconducting properties 2 . SnS is a p-type semiconductor with layered orthorhombic crystal structure.…”

“…Typical synthetic methods include chemical bath deposition [7][8][9] , thermal evaporation 10,11 , electrodeposition 12,13 , spray pyrolysis technique 14,15 , sputtering 16 , etc. Different morphological SnS and SnSe nanomaterials were prepared by using the above methods, including nanoparticles 17,18 , nanorods 19 , nanoflakes 20 , nanofibers 21 , films 2,22 , nanoplate 23 , etc. By far, no reports on the preparation of SnS or SnSe nanofibers are found in literatures.…”

Development of sulphurized SnS thin film solar cells

“…Tin sulphide have been prepared using a variety of deposition techniques, such as spray pyrolysis [6,10,15,43], thermal evaporation [13,16,51,39], electronbeam evaporation [17], hot wall deposition [18], chemical bath deposition [19,55], successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction [20], RF sputtering [21], atomic layer deposition [22], chemical vapor deposition [23,45,46], electrochemical deposition [4,24,41,54] and sulphurization [25,26,55]. Among them, sulphurization is one of the simple method that can be used to prepare SnS films over large area deposition at low cost with well controlled composition and it has proved as a most promising method for producing high quality CIGS and CIS thin films for solar cell fabrication.…”